Category Archives: short stories

I received a copy You Think It, I’ll Say It, a book of stories, from Netgalley. And Lord, was I excited! I love Curtis Sittenfeld. Two years ago, I read Eligible which is a re-telling of Pride & Prejudice. It was hilarious. So I was very excited to read this new one of hers.

If you also liked Eligible, be aware that these stories are not funny. I was thinking it would be more like American Housewife, which was hilarious. But most of Sittenfeld’s stories are day in the life, fairly serious and thought provoking stories. I don’t care for the one that came from the book’s title but I really liked most of them. The title story is about a married woman with kids who plays a game called You Think It, I’ll Say It with a fellow dad at parties or sporting events where she rips on other people and he listens. For some reason she thinks this means they have a connection and she believes she’s in love with him. Meh. My favorite one was about this woman who’s obsessed with a celebrity and her social media accounts. This celeb is essentially described like The Pioneer Woman. The character is obsessed with her because in their early twenties they had an affair. And yet now, she’s married with 3 kids! What a hypocrite. It’s a great story.

I love how all of the stories feel well rounded and thought out and you really feel like you know the character and what they’re thinking and doing and even what they’ve been thinking and doing off the page before their story came to you. It’s such a great book. Highly recommended. The release date for this book is May 3, 2018.

We’re going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union is hilarious. I laughed out loud constantly. To me, she’s famous for 10 Things I Hate About You. She’s also in Bring it On and has had appearances on Friends, Star Trek, 7th Heaven and many many other things. But her stories are mainly about her life with those acting gigs interspersed here and there. She talks very frankly about many things. She was raped while working in a Payless Shoes when she was 19 years old – I will never go to a Payless Shoes ever again. She talks about that and how it gave her serious anxiety from then on, and even now that she’s 44 years old. She also talks about her and her husband‘s three boys and how they raise them as black men. She has a unique perspective, especially from mine, and I appreciated everything she had to say. I highly recommend it and I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2017 : a collection of stories by a woman (I never would’ve called this a collection of short stories but the word stories is the subtitle so I guess it is and I’m going to count it)

I have lots and lots of books on my desk right now. So I thought I’d share a few. Mind you, I’ve started none of these books. I’m on page 0 with every single one. So if you’ve read them or have heard things let me know and help me make my stack smaller by process of elimination.

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø. I saw the movie trailer for this one when I went to go see Atomic Blonde last month and it looked equally parts scary and suspenseful. I typically hate scary movies but I think this one might be similar to Taking Lives. By that I mean it’s more about the detective and his relationship with people than about the serial killer. More suspenseful than horror-like. I’ll try the book first. See if I make it.

This was an amazing book. I avoided it for a long time because of all the hype. But the hype is deserving and it should have won the Pulitzer. In my humble opinion. I also love that Yaa Gyasi went to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Iowa pride. It was also one of the books that was mailed around in my traveling book club for the months of Sept-Oct.

Each chapter follows a different character, all of them stemming from two women – half sisters. In this way it’s almost like a connective short story collection. I loved all the characters and their lives. So much so that more books could be written about the timeline of the characters lives that we don’t see. And I would read those books. No question.

January was my first Book of the Month experience. These were the 5 books I had to choose from.

Now, I did a lot of research before I chose. First, I read the summaries. Then I made note of who the judge was just in case I had heard of them. I had not, nor had I heard of any of the authors. So then I went to Goodreads and Amazon and looked up their ratings. When it came down to it I didn’t really love any of them. Honestly, I should’ve skipped this month (which BOTM lets you do) but I was too excited to get my first box. I ended up choosing Girls in the Moon. I already had The Most Dangerous Place on Earth on my Kindle from Netgalley or else I would’ve chosen that one. I’ll be honest, I haven’t read it yet. I picked it because I knew there was someone I could give it to afterwards. That’s another perk to me, sharing the book love. Once I’m done with my reading choices I can’t wait to send #bookmail off to someone else to enjoy. Also, this box came with a freebie! Gillian Flynn’s short story Grownup was an added bonus to January’s box.

For the last few years, I can’t remember how many, NPR has done this virtual concierge of their best book suggestions for the year. I like it, but I’m a list person so some part of me misses the basic list. See for yourself and you can how you feel. Please note, there are way more in this concierge thing than on a regular best of 2016 list because of the algorithm they have to choose different topics. 309 books!

I looked at them all. Because, why not? I have read, 11 of them. To completion! I have tried to read, or almost finished as I like to call it in Goodreads, 13 of them. That’s 8% – rounding up. Haha. Let’s include one more layer. There are 24 of them I have checked out and brought to my house but never opened, or only read the first few pages. That puts me up to 15% so I feel a bit better. Anything above 10% and I’m golden. Who can really compete with NPR?

This was a very very quick read. A Boy Named Queen is only 96 pages. There is no reason it can’t be read by everyone. It would make an amazing class discussion book. There’s nothing explicit about transgender like in George. It could easily be read in class and talked about in reference to how everyone should be treated, everyone is different and that’s not a bad thing, etc. It’s just the best. Quick summary. Evelyn is just starting fifth grade. She gets new shoes that her mom would have never let her get the year before. She feels ready. On the first day there is a new boy who announces that his name is Queen. She is instantly intrigued. Evelyn’s life isn’t boring but Queen would definitely be a friend who could make it more interesting and she wants to learn about him and be friends with him. No hi-jinx ensue as in typical middle grade books, but a wonderful friendship forms.